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Harris Public Policy Associated Faculty Rena Conti

Harris Public Policy Associated Faculty Rena Conti published and article in Vox with fellow public health economists Joshua Sharfstein and Joy Lee about the Louisiana Department of Health and Human Services which is considering asking the federal government to use a 100 year old law to supersede pharmaceutical patents and make hepatitis C treatments affordable to the Medicaid program.

"A reasonable estimate of the additional cost of providing treatment to all in need in Louisiana exceeds $1 billion, roughly 50 times what Louisiana’s Medicaid program currently spends each year for hepatitis C medications. It will be a decade or more before any of the available treatments lose patent protection and cheaper generics become available."